The Skopostheorie And English Film Title Translation

As an art form, films are widely accepted out of its special glamour. With the rapid and further development of China's opening-up and reform, China has had more and more cultural exchanges with the rest of the world, especially with the English-speaking countries. A lot of English films poured into China's film market. Needless to say, translation is supposed to play an important role in introducting these English films, which has thus given rise to the intensive study of film translation. Film titles, which are just like brands of commodities, are of very influential guiding effects to audience. The translating of the film titles should be focused on the feeling of audience and be judged by the standard whether it helps audience with their understanding and their appreciation of the films watched. The translating of English film titles into Chinese should conform with the aesthetic expectation and the cultural psychology of the Chinese audience.In the foreign language master journals published in the past decade, it is noticed that there is a relative scarcity of theoretical writing on film translation in general and on film title translation in particular. English film title translation is a challenging job. Up till now, no systematic theory on it has been put forward. This thesis discusses this topic from the perspective of Skopostheorie. The author puts forward that the purpose of translation of film titles is to attract audience to see the film. Through examples, the author makes a detailed analysis of the consideration that translators need to completely realize the four principles of film title translation, namely cultural, informative, aesthetic and commercial principles.This thesis mainly classifies film title translation into transliteration, literal translation, liberal translation, combination of literal translation and liberal translation, creative translation and tries to probe into different methods for different title types in terms of Skopostheorie as the guidance.This thesis also presents a detailed analysis of the unique features of film title translations in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland of China respectively. And the author proposes that the disunity of the English film title translation in the three regions should be reserved. When they are faced with several translated versions, an effective solution is to put forth effort to avoid causing confusion to the audience.The thesis is divided into six parts. The introduction briefly introduces the motivation and the significance of the project, and illustrates the outline of this thesis. Chapter 1 gives a general introduction to the film and film titles, including film genres, naming approaches of English film title, features of English film title, functions of film title and positions of film title. Chapter 2 lays the theoretical framework for the whole thesis. Skopostheorie and the theory of action are introduced. The author proposes that the skopos of film title translations is to call upon audience to appreciate films and all the methods and strategies serve this skopos. Chapter 3 is mainly concerned with Skopostheorie's influence on film title translation and the principles and strategies to be taken in the course of translating film titles. Chapter 4 focuses on surveying the differences in the English film title translation between Mainland of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and try to probe into affecting factors that have caused those differences. Solution will be put forward at the end of the chapter in order to solve the disunity existing in the three regions. The last part is the conclusion, which gives a brief summary of the whole thesis.